Web indexing apparatus for wrapping machines



Jan. 10, 1956 J, w, sMlTH 2,730,359

WEB INDEXING APPARATUS FOR WRAPPING MACHINES Filed Sept. 25, 1952 k KK INVENTORZ United States Patent 9 WEB MDEXING APPARATUS FOR WRAPPING MAQHENES John W. Smith, Battle Creek, Mich, assignor to Battle Creek Packaging Machines, Inc, a corporation of Michigan Application September 25, 1952, Serial No. 311,505

10 Claims. (Cl. 271--2.6)

This invention relates to improvements in web indexing apparatus for wrapping machines.

The principal objects of this invention are:

First, to provide indexing apparatus including. an index sensing electric eye which will stop the web feed of a wrapping machine in predetermined position relative to a design on the web so that articles wrapped by the machine will have the design uniformly positioned thereon.

Second, to provide an electrically actuated mechanism for disconnecting and stopping the web feed of a wrapping machine in response to a signal received from an index sensing device so that the web stops at a predetermined position relative to the index marks thereon.

Third, to provide an electrically actuated mechanism that can be attached to the web feeding apparatus of existing wrapping machines to obtain more accurate control of the web feed than was possible with existing mechanical controls on the machines.

Fourth, to provide index control apparatus for a wrapping machine which apparatus is relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture and install.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from a consideration of the following description and claims. The drawings of which there is one sheet illustrate a highly practical form of the apparatus.

Fig. l is a fragmentary side elevational view of a wrapping machine having the index control apparatus associated therewith.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary transverse cross sectional view taken along the plane of the line 22 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged elevational view of the clutch actuating linkage for the web feed drive and a portion of the index control apparatus associated therewith.

The index control apparatus is shown applied to a wrapping machine generally indicated at 1. The wrapping machine is designed to be supplied with articles to be wrapped such as the loaf of bread 2 by means of an infeed conveyor 3 having article advancing flights 4. A web of wrapping material 5 is drawn into a machine from a supply roll 6 by feed rolls 7 and 8 and is severed into individual wrapper sheets that are wrapped around the articles by apparatus, the details of which are unimportant to the present invention.

The driven roll 8 of the web feeding rolls is mounted on a shaft 9 that projects through the side 10 of the machine. A driving clutch member 11 is freely rotatably mounted on the shaft and is arranged to be constantly driven by a chain 12 from a suitable sprocket 13 driven in timed relationship with the other elements of the wrapping machine. A driven clutch element 14 is axially slidably mounted on the shaft 9 outwardly from the driving clutch element 11 and is nonrotatably keyed or pinned to the shaft as at 15. The driven clutch element 14 is axially drivingly connected to the branches of a shift fork 16 and the base 17 of the shift fork is a cam follower secured to a pin 18 rotatably mounted in a bushing 19 on the bracket 20. The base 17 of the shift fork is provided with a crank arm 23. extending transversely toward the side of the machine and pivotally connected to the link 22. Reciprocating motion of the link 22 will thus function to engage and disengage the clutch 11 through 14. A spring 24 anchored to the frame of the machine at 25 and connected to the link at 26 functions to bias the link and clutch mechanism to disengaged position.

The link 22 is reciprocated in timed relationship with the wrapping machine by means of a clutch timing cam 27 that is driven through the gears 28 from a driven part of the machine. The cam 27 engages and oscillates 29 carried on the double armed lever The lever 30 is mounted on a fixed pivot 31 and its upper end is provided with a pivotal connection 32 to a pawl 33. A pin 34 carried by the lever 30 is en aged by the sides of a notch 35 in the pawl to limit oscillation of the pawl on the lever.

'The pawl 33 carries an ear 36 that projects laterally to a lever 37 mounted on the pivot 31 alongside of the double armed lever 30. The upper end of the lever 37 is notched as at 3% to receive and engage the ear 36 when the pawl is oscillated in a clockwise direction as viewed in the drawings. The end of the link 22 is pivotally connected to the lever 37 as at 39 so that clockwise movement of the double armed lever 30 and the pawl carried thereby will normally move the lever 37 and link 22 to the right to engage the clutch.

In order to prevent engagement of the clutch and consequent feeding of the web 5 when there are no 'rticlcs to be wrapped, the conveyor 3 has a blocking lever 4% associated therewith and arranged to be pressed downwardly by advancing motion of the article to be wrapped. The lever 40 has a fixed pivot 41 and functions through the link 42 to swing a crank 43 in clockwise direction when the lever 40 is depressed. The crank 43 has an arm 44 that is swingable into blocking engagement with the pawl 33 to prevent the pawl and ear 36 from moving into driving engagement with the lever 37 when there is no article ready to be wrapped. When the arm 44 is swung out of registering position with respect to the pawl the pawl and ear 36 fall into driving engagement with the notch 38.

.The foregoing structure provides means for engaging the web feed clutch and driving the same through a portion of the cycle of the machine as determined by the contour of the cam 27. Rotation of the cam will then mechanically disengage the clutch after a fairly accurately predetermined length of the web has been fed into the wrapping machine.

The mechanical drive and control of the web feeding mechanism is not absolutely accurate as to the amount of web that will be fed in any given cycle and it has been found that the web feeding apparatus tends to creep or feed an extra amount of web each cycle so that after several wrapping cycles and indicia on the wrapper web that was at first centered on the wrapped articles will creep around out of registry of the articles. In order to prevent this the index control apparatus stops the web feeding mechanism independently of the cam 27 as will be described.

The pin 18 carries a second cam arm 45 on its lower end which is pivotally connected to a link 46. The link 46 is in turn connected to the armature 47 of a solenoid 48 so that energization of the solenoid will disengage the driven clutch member 14 from the driving clutch member 11. In order to prevent actuation of the clutch by the solenoid 48 from jamming the linkage connected between the cam 27 and link 22, a second solenoid as is mounted on the side of the machine above the lever 30. The

3 armature 50 of the solenoid 49 is connected by a link.51 to the pawl 33 and energization of the solenoid 49 moves the pawl and its car 36 out of driving engagement with the lever 37. The clutch and the link 22 can thus be moved by the solenoid 48 regardless of the position of the lever 30 and cam 27.

An electric eye sensing device 52 is mounted on the machine adjacent one edge of the incoming webs 5. A lamp 53 is mounted on the machine to shine through the edge of the web to the eye 52. The edge of the web is provided with darkened or nontransparent index indicia at intervals as at 54. The eye 52 is connected by means of the cable 55 with suitable control mechanisms and circuits located within a box 56 so that when the eye senses the presence of one of the indexing marks the control mechanism is actuated to energize the solenoids 48 and 49 through the cables 57 and 58. The electrical apparatus for energizing the solenoid in response to a signal from the electric eye and means for resetting the apparatus form no part of the present invention and so are not described .in greater detail. It is thus possible to electrically disengage the clutch and stop the web feed rolls 7 and 8 before the cam 27 has completed the web feeding portion of its cycle of rotation. The disengageable link or pawl 33 in the driving linkage to the clutch permits the cam 27 to complete its cycle of rotation and be ready for the next clutching operation independently of the electrically actuated clutch disengaging mechanism.

' Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by .Letters Patent, is:

1. Index control for a machine for feeding a web having index indicia thereon comprising, means for feeding a web, drive means including a clutch connected to operate said web feeding means, a first lever connected to engage and disengage said clutch, a cyclically operating cam on said machine, a crank pivoted on said machine and having a follower engaged with said cam, a second lever pivoted on the same axis as said crank and adjacent said crank, a pawl pivotally mounted on a swinging portion of said crank and drivingly engageable in one position with said second lever, a link connecting said levers to impart engaging motion to said clutch, a third lever connected to engage and disengage said clutch, solenoids on said machine having their armatures connected to said pawl and said third lever, electric means connected to energize said solenoids, and an electric eye sensing device positioned adjacent the path of said web to sense the position of said indicia and electrically connected to actuate said means for energizing said solenoids.

2. Index control for a machine for feeding a web having index indicia thereon comprising, means for feeding a web, drive means including a ciutch connected to operate said web feeding means, a first lever connected to engage and disengage said clutch, a cyclically operating cam on said machine, a crank pivoted on said machine and having a follower engaged with said cam, a second lever pivoted adjacent said crank, a pawl pivotally mounted on a swinging portion of said crank and drivingly engageable in one position with said second lever, a link connecting said levers to impart engaging motion to said clutch, a third lever connected to engage and disengage said clutch, solenoids on said machine having their armatures connected to said pawl and said third lever, electric means connected to energize said solenoids, and an electric sensing device positioned adjacent the path of said web to sense the position of said indicia and electrically connected to actuate said means for energizing said solenoids.

'3. In combination with a wrapping machine having web feeding means and a power source, means including a clutch drivingly connecting said web feeding means to said source, cam means connected to said source and cyclically driven thereby, a cam follower driven by said last means, linkage connecting said follower to said clutch to engage and disengage the latter, a disengageable connecting link in said linkage, a first solenoid having its armature connected to said clutch to disengage the same, a second solenoid having its armature connected to said link to disconnect said linkage, an electric eye sensing device positioned adjacent to said web to sense the position of indicia thereon, and means energized by said sensing device connected to said solenoids to actuate the same to disengage said clutch and said link.

4. In combination with a wrapping machine having web feeding means and a power source, means including a clutch drivingly connecting said web feeding means to said source, means connected to said source and cyclically driven thereby, a follower driven by said last means, linkage connecting said follower to said clutch to engage and disengage the latter, a disengageable connecting link in said linkage, a first solenoid connected to said clutch to disengage the same, a second solenoid connected to said link to disconnect said linkage, an electric sensing device positioned adjacent to said web to sense the position of indicia thereon, and means energized by said sensing device connected to said solenoid to actuate the Same to disengage said clutch and said link.

5. In combination with a wrapping machine having a web feeding means, a clutch adapted to actuate said feeding means and rotary cam actuated linkage connected to engage and disengage said clutch, means for stopping said web feeding means independently of said cam actuated linkage comprising, solenoid actuated means connected to disengage said clutch independently of said linkage, a disengageable link connected in load transmitting relation in said linkage, other solenoid actuated means connected to said link to move the same to disengaged position, an electric eye sensing device positioned to sense an index indicia on the Web being fed into said machine, and electric energizing means connected between said sensing device and said solenoid actuated means to energize the latter in response to the sensing action of said device.

6. In combination with a wrapping machine having a web feeding means, a clutch adapted to actuate said feeding means and mechanically actuated means connected to engage and disengage said clutch, independently actuated means for stopping said web feeding means comprising, solenoid actuated means connected to disengage said clutch, an electric sensing device positioned to sense an index indicia on the web-being fed into said machine, and electrical energizing means connected between said sensing device and said solenoid actuated means to energize the latter in response to the sensing action of said device, said mechanically actuated means being biased to clutch disengaged position.

7. In combination with a wrapping machine having a web feeding means, a clutch adapted to actuate said feeding means and mechanically actuated means connected to engage and disengage said clutch, independently actuated means for stopping said web feeding means comprising, solenoid actuated means connected to disengage said clutch, an electric sensing device positioned to sense an index indicia on the web being fed into said machine, and electrical energizing means connected between said sensing device and said solenoid actuated means to energize the latter in response to the sensing action of said device.

8. in combination with a wrapping machine having a web feeding means, a clutch adapted to actuate said feeding means and cam actuated linkage connected to engage and disengage said clutch, other means for stopping said web feeding means comprising, a disengagcable link connected in load transmitting relation in said linkage, solenoid actuated means connected to said link totmove the same to disengaged position, an electric eye sensing device positioned tosense an index indicia on the web being fed into said machine, electric energizing means connected between said sensing device and said solenoid actuated means to energize the latter in response to the sensing action of said device, and means biasing said clutch to disengaged position.

9. In combination with a wrapping machine having a web feeding means, a clutch adapted to actuate said feeding means and cyclically operating means driven with said machine connected to engage and disengage said clutch, means for stopping said web feeding means independently of said cyclically operating means comprising, solenoid actuated means connected to disengage said clutch independently of said cyclically operating means, a disconnectable element movable into and out of load transmitting relation in said cyclically operating means, other solenoid actuated means connected to said element to move the same out of load transmitting position, an electric eye sensing device positioned to sense an index indicia on the web being fed into said machine, and electric energizing means connected between said sensing device and said solenoid actuated means to energize the latter in response to the sensing action of said device.

10. In combination with a wrapping machine having a web feeding means, a clutch adapted to actuate said feeding means and cyclically operating means driven with said machine connected to engage and disengage said clutch, means for stopping said web feeding means independently of said cyclically operating means comprising, an element in said cyclically operating means movable into and out of load transmitting relation in said cyclically operating means, a solenoid connected to control said element, an electric sensing device positioned to sense an index indicia on the web being fed into said machine, and electrical energizing means connected between said sensing device and said solenoid to actuate the latter in response to the sensing action of said device, said clutch being biased to disengaged position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 530,323 Buckman Dec. 4, 1894 1,972,075 Clark Sept. 4, 1934 1,988,486 Ferenci Jan. 22, 1935 1,991,423 Shaver Feb. 19, 1935 2,127,028 Hayssen Aug. 16, 1938 

